


From Ghoulies and Ghosties/ And Long-legged Beasties/ And Things That Go Bump In the Night, Good Lord, Deliver Us!

by HarveyWallbanger



Category: Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name
Genre: Gen, Hanna and Zombie talkin' about their relationship, M/M, fan-wanking disguised as a story, starts out moody and atmospheric, the end is so sweet you could vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-21
Updated: 2012-03-21
Packaged: 2017-11-02 07:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarveyWallbanger/pseuds/HarveyWallbanger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life is full of mysteries; it's just a matter of deciding which ones are worth solving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Ghoulies and Ghosties/ And Long-legged Beasties/ And Things That Go Bump In the Night, Good Lord, Deliver Us!

**Author's Note:**

> I am not Tessa Stone, and this school is not Tessa Stone. Title comes from a traditional Scottish prayer.

It's a clichéd sentiment, but at night, it really is another world. People think of night as being a quiet time, and maybe it is for them and all the other diurnal creatures, but it has its own set of busy denizens. The raccoons that pillage the carelessly unsecured trashcans and Dumpsters. The possums who also partake of human leavings, and dig in sprinkler-softened earth for small animals. The curious rats, and skittish mice. Lonely feral dogs. Cats, both feral and domesticated, playing out what anyone ascribing human motives to them would call machinations, in their endless turf disputes. Vampires, if one is sufficiently knowledgeable to know where to find them, or sufficiently unlucky to be found by them. Werewolves, though they are rare, and often wholly-adapted to a human lifestyle. Ghouls, doing unspeakable things in cemeteries. Strange pale lights shimmering in the distance, their exact source unknown.  
And us. It's like a joke: a paranormal investigator, a living dead man, a werewolf, and a vampire-hunter are driving down the road…  
I told Hanna that I knew a place where we might leave Mr. Van Slyk, so we plunge deeper into the night. It opens around us, soft and cold, accommodating with its moonless darkness. We've long since left the city center, and the suburbs, undifferentiated monochromatic blocks in the dark, and we're coming to an area of miscellaneous use. Some of it is semi-rural, some industrial. Some of it is half-wild, the site of old development long since abandoned and given over to the hardy and ubiquitous vegetation that will grow on any land, when native flora will not.  
"Marco, how do you know about this place?" Hanna asks.  
"I just do."  
"They used to dump bodies here," says Mr. Van Slyk, Abner. He's still wearing his mask and goggles, though it must be uncomfortable. When he speaks, he sounds far away and robotic.  
"Probably," I reply.  
"Maybe this is where they dumped you," he says.  
I shrug. "It wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility."  
"You really don't know, do you?"  
"It doesn't especially matter."  
"Wouldn't you like to?"  
Hanna's voice is high and sharp. "Can we please stop talking about this?"  
"He has a right to know about his past. As do you, about yours, Mr. Cross."  
"You don't know anything about me," Hanna murmurs.  
"I know plenty. About you, and your friends. Aren't you going to ask me how I found them, tonight? Adelaide, and that sad excuse for a vampire she made. Lamont, and that insult to the medical profession, Worth?"  
"No," says Hanna, "because I don't care."  
"More's the pity. It's horrible, living a life that can't even be called a life, because it has so many pieces missing."  
"Just shut up, already. You're lucky we don't shoot you, and throw you in a ditch."  
"Not your style, Mr. Cross."  
"It's just up here," I say. Though, we could stop anywhere, and it wouldn't make any difference. It's impenetrably dark, and miles from anything that might be of any use to Abner.  
"Stop," I say. Hanna stops the car, and turns it off. "You and Toni get out first, and then open the door for me," I tell him. They do.  
Pointing Abner's shotgun at him, I back slowly out of the car. "Now, open his side. If he makes any sudden moves, Toni, you know what to do. Out of the car, slowly, Mr. Van Slyk."  
He does as I told him, cradling his ferret against his chest. It occurs to me that the ferret may be the only reason he's being cooperative. I'll take it. I go over to him, and press the muzzle of the gun between his shoulder blades.  
"Hanna, check the trunk for something to use to restrain him."  
"Wow," Hanna says, as he opens the trunk, "I feel like I've got the briefcase from Pulp Fiction."  
"Is there something there?"  
"He's got everything. Rope, handcuffs…"  
"The rope will do. I'm sorry, Mr. Van Slyk, but you're going to have to put down the ferret, and take off your gloves."  
Gently, Abner sets the ferret on the ground, and then removes his gloves.  
"Hands behind your back, please. Hanna, tie his wrists. His ankles, too."  
It takes him a while, but Hanna gets it done.  
"You were never a Boy Scout, were you?" Toni laughs.  
"How could you tell?"  
"We're going to take your car, Mr. Van Slyk, and we're going to drive away, now. We hope never to see you again."  
"You know you will," Abner replies.  
I can't think of anything to say to that, so I tell Toni and Hanna to get into the car. They do, and then I do, as well. Hanna backs the car away, and Abner becomes increasingly small and featureless. Just another piece of the nighttime world.

"I hope this doesn't make me sound like a jerk," Toni says, "but please don't call me for a while. I mean, if you want to hang out, sure, call me, but if it's about this kind of stuff, just give me some time to catch my breath."  
"I'm sorry," Hanna says, "I shouldn't have involved you."  
"No, I'm glad I was here tonight. I don't mind helping you. I want to help you. I just can't do this all the time. This is your career; it's not mine, though."  
"But you'd like to hang out?"  
"Sure. I still owe you dinner, after all."  
"Ooh- dinner!"  
"You can bring Marco. Conrad's also welcome. You can leave me here."  
"Thank you, Toni."  
"You're welcome. Good night, Hanna. Good night, Marco. Tell Conrad I said, Hi."  
Toni gets out of the car, and we watch her enter her home. Hanna pulls out onto the street, and we begin the drive to ours.  
For a moment, it's still warm and sweet, but then, something changes. Hanna looks at me. In the streetlight, he looks no less young, but it's like a mask of youth barely concealing things youth could never know.  
"I should have let you talk to him," Hanna says.  
"Talk to Abner? About what?"  
"Your past, your life."  
"I don't think he knows anything. He was trying to get to me, to both of us. He said the same thing to you. If he really had any information, he would have told us, outright; used that against us."  
"He obviously knows things, though. Somehow, he tracked down Adelaide. He knows what Worth does. He knows about Conrad, and Conrad definitely hasn't been going around telling people that he's a vampire."  
"And if he does know things, what does it matter?"  
"It's mystery, your past and what happened to you. Don't you want to solve it?"  
"Not especially."  
Hanna shakes his head. "I can't imagine that."  
"If I did solve it, then what? I'd get justice, whatever that means? I'd walk into a light, or something?  
"Maybe."  
"Well, maybe I don't want that."  
"What, justice?"  
"I don't really care about that. Like I said, I don't even know what it would mean, at this point. The person, or the people who did this to me- anyone I knew, really- could be dead, themselves. Anything could have happened to them. Life's gone on. No, I mean, I don't want to walk into a light."  
"You'd be at peace."  
"What makes you think I'm not at peace, now?"  
We're deep in the night. It's like a sea, and this is the eerie calm of it. We're drifting through it, in what is, for all intents and purposes, a stolen car. I wouldn't be surprised if Abner had already freed himself, but right now, he may as well not exist. We're so far from him, adrift among nameless islands, atop unfathomable depths.  
"I want to know."  
"Want to know what?"  
"Why the things that have happened to me have happened."  
"Then, that's your mystery to solve, Hanna."  
"Will you help me?"  
"That's why I'm here, isn't it? I'm your partner, after all."  
"Yeah."  
"What do you want to do about Abner's car?"  
Hanna sighs. "Oh, jeez. I don't know. We can take it to Worth's tomorrow. Lamont can probably do something with it."  
"That's a good idea."  
Hanna laughs, "I'm really glad I don't have to go to work tomorrow."  
"You can get some rest."  
"I hadn't even thought about how tired I am."  
"Well, we're almost home."  
"Hmm."  
At a stoplight, I feel a sudden soft pressure on the back of my hand; I look down, and Hanna's is resting atop mine. "Is this all right?" he asks.  
"Yes, of course."  
I spread my fingers, and let them loosely interlock with his, until the light changes, and he says, "Oops. I need that back."

Sunrise is still a few hours away, but by the time we get home, it feels as though the night is over, the continuing darkness just a formality.  
Hanna yawns all the way up to the building, and into the apartment. While he goes about his before bed rituals, I look for a book to read, and then settle into a corner of the room. He comes into the room, smelling of mint, taking off his glasses. He gets into bed, but doesn't lie down. Sitting up, he regards me.  
"I feel really weird asking this, and you can say no, but, um, would you sleep with me? I mean," he puts out his hands, "not like that. Er, you know what I mean. Could you just be here with me?"  
"Let me take off my shoes."  
"I'm sorry for being so clingy. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, tonight."  
"Well," I say, setting my shoes against the wall, and walking over to Hanna's bed, "we were shot at tonight. By two different people. People you care about were threatened, or injured. Someone who may have been trying to mess with your mind suggested that he knows more about you than you, yourself, know. It's been sort of an unsettling night."  
I get into bed, and put my arm around him. "Is that all right?"  
"Yeah," he says, settling against me. "I didn't know what you'd do if I asked you to hold me, so I'm glad you did it on your own."  
"Hanna. You aren't going to freak me out, or whatever it is you think you're going to do."  
"I just- I really like you. I really care about you."  
"I feel the same way about you."  
"I don't really know how relationships work. Especially this kind."  
"Because I'm a man?"  
"Sort of. And because you're dead. And because we work together. And because of all the crap I bring to the party."  
I lie back, so that he can rest his head on my shoulder. "You don't have to have it all figured out. It can be another mystery to solve."  
His curls brush against my neck, and I smile at the sensation, distant but sweet. "Good," Hanna says, "I think this will be a fun one."


End file.
